Mid-America Conference on History

Introduction

In 1977, the department of history at Missouri State University established the Mid-America
Conference on History. From the beginning, the Mid-America Conference has drawn attention
nationally even though the bulk of the attendees are from the Midwest. The conference
has drawn historians in all stages of their careers. Doctoral students, university
faculty, and independent scholars have all shared their scholarship with colleagues
from other institutions and the public at the conference. Indeed, many close friendships
have been made at the Mid-America, which has contributed to the large number of returnees
each year.

McKendree University

McKendree University was founded in 1828 and is the longest standing Methodist institution
in the United States. McKendree is located in Lebanon, Illinois, only twenty minutes
east of St. Louis via Interstate-64 and Illinois Route-4. The McKendree campus gives
visitors the opportunity to attend functions in both modern and historic parts of
“the old college on the hill”. Historic Lebanon offers a variety of shops and unique
dining experiences for visitors of all ages. The surrounding communities offer an
abundance of activities for regional visitors to engage in, including Cahokia Mounds
State Historic Site, St. Louis Art Museum, and the St. Louis History Museum.

The 37th Mid-America Conference on History at McKendree University offers a unique experience
for history enthusiast to visit amongst their peers and engage in a campus decorated
with buildings erected in both the past and the present.

Opening Session, Thursday, September 10th, 7 pm in Bothwell Chapel

The Mother Jones Museum and the Mother Jones Heritage Project.

This panel will introduce Mary Harris “Mother” Jones and her work. It will also provide
an overview of the current efforts to educate the public about her historical significance.
The museum and project supporters hope to collect, interpret, and preserve the legacy
of labor activist “Mother” Jones.

Mother Jones had a special relationship with Illinois. It was there, in Chicago, the
most radical city in the nation and perhaps the world in the late nineteenth century
that she became a radical activist against corporate and elite power structures. She
launched a campaign for socialism from Chicago with another woman activist in 1898,
an effort that led to the folk song “She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain.”

A graduate of Columbia University and Duke University, William J. Maxwell arrived
at Washington University in 2009 and teaches courses in twentieth-century American
and African American literatures. His scholarly research, rooted in both modernist
and African American studies, addresses the ties among African American writing, political
history, and transatlantic culture. He has published over forty articles and reviews,
and three books.

Maxwell’s third book, F.B. Eyes: How J. Edgar Hoover's Ghostreaders Framed African American Literature (http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10321.html), was published by Princeton University Press in 2015. At first glance, few institutions
seem more opposed than African American literature and J. Edgar Hoover’s white-bread
Federal Bureau of Investigation. But behind the scenes the FBI’s hostility to black
protest was energized by fear of and respect for black writing. Drawing on nearly
14,000 pages of newly released FBI files, F.B. Eyes exposes the Bureau’s intimate policing of five decades of African American poems,
plays, essays, and novels. Starting in 1919, year one of Harlem’s renaissance and
Hoover’s career at the Bureau, secretive FBI “ghostreaders” monitored the latest developments
in African American letters. By the time of Hoover’s death in 1972, these ghostreaders
knew enough to simulate a sinister black literature of their own. The official aim
behind the Bureau’s close reading was to anticipate political unrest. Yet, as F.B. Eyes reveals, FBI surveillance came to influence the creation and public reception of
African American literature in the heart of the twentieth century. The book’s companion
website, “The F.B. Eyes Digital Archive” (http://digital.wustl.edu/fbeyes/), presents high-quality copies of 49 FBI files on African American authors and literary
institutions obtained through the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Copies of F.B. Eyes will be available for purchase and signing at the event.

A block of rooms has been reserved at the Drury Inn and Suites in O’Fallon, Illinois.
Rooms can be reserved at the discounted rate by confirming your affiliation to the
Mid-America Conference. A shuttle to the conference will be available for those staying
at the Drury Inn. There are other hotel accommodations available throughout the area.